Romney says he would keep parts of Obama health care law

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“There are a number of things that I like in health care reform that I’m going to put in place,” Mitt Romney told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

By Callum BorchersGlobe Correspondent
September 09, 2012

Mitt Romney has called for wholesale repeal of President Obama’s national health care law, but in a TV interview that aired Sunday he said he is “not getting rid of all of health care reform.”

“Of course, there are a number of things that I like in health care reform that I’m going to put in place,” Romney told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “One is to make sure that those with preexisting conditions can get coverage. Two is to assure that the marketplace allows for individuals to have policies that cover their family up to whatever age they might like.”

In a two-part interview, filmed Friday aboard his campaign bus and Saturday at his Boston headquarters, Romney sought to fend off a charge by Obama’s reelection campaign that repealing the 2010 health care law would leave young adults and people with preexisting health conditions without insurance. Under the law championed by Obama, parents can keep children as old as 26 on their family insurance plans, and insurance companies cannot deny coverage to people with preexisting conditions.

Romney said he will work not only to repeal the health care law but also to replace it with reforms of his own.

But in making his point, Romney ventured into politically treacherous waters, acknowledging that his vision of health care reform overlaps -- in parts, at least -- with Obama’s and highlighting similarities between the national law and one that he signed as governor of Massachusetts.

“I say we’re going to replace Obamacare, and I’m replacing it with my own plan,” Romney said. “And even in Massachusetts, when I was governor, our plan there deals with preexisting conditions and with young people.”

The Obama campaign has consistently tried to link Romney to the national law he derides on the campaign trail, saying Romney’s Massachusetts law provided the template for the federal version.